Wimberly elected to N.J. Senate to replace Pou

Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson) will replace now-Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) in the New Jersey Senate after winning a special election convention Thursday night by one vote after a first ballot ended in a tie.

Wimberly defeated his longtime running mate, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson), at a meeting of Democratic county committee members from the 35th district at the Paterson STEAM High School.  He won 87-86; Wimberly carried the in-person voting, 78-72, and Sumter led on the virtual votes, 14-9.

Sumter has agreed not to challenge the results of the convention in court.  That led Wimberly to immediately resign his seat in the Assembly so that Democrats in the Passaic/Bergen district could proceed with replacing him this evening. Two candidates are seeking his seat: Paterson City Councilman Al Abdelaziz and Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah. Paterson School Board member Kenneth Simmons has withdrawn.

On the first ballot, one additional ballot — which was marked for Wimberly — had fallen on the floor and was not counted.

Wimberly hugged Pou before the official results were announced and afterward, he simply told the New Jersey Globe he was “drained.”

“I will hit the ground and continue fighting for you in Trenton,” Wimberly told the crowd. “Education, health care, housing, … these things that are important to all of us, I will continue to do.”

Wimberly will be out of office until the Senate next convenes to swear him in, which could happen in the next few weeks, and serve until the winner of a November special election is certified.

Sumter must decide if she will seek re-election to an eighth term in the Assembly or take her Senate campaign directly to the voters in the June 10 Democratic primary.

There were 199 county committee seats filled for tonight’s election, with 124 of them in Paterson. Also in the 35th district: North Haledon (14), Haledon (11), and Prospect Park (8) in Passaic County, and Garfield (23) and Elmwood Park (19) in Bergen.

When Pascrell died in August, Paterson had 83 county committee seats filled and 53 vacancies. Since then, 41 new county committee members have been appointed.

Wimberly, 60, a famed North Jersey high school football coach and former Paterson city councilman, will become the first Black senator in Passaic County history.

Pou traded her Senate seat for one in Congress following the death of 87-year-old Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) last year. She was elected to the Assembly in 1997 after Pascrell left Trenton to become a congressman and moved up to the Senate in 2011.

He announced his candidacy for Congress following Pascrell’s death but withdrew from the race after three Democratic county chairs coalesced behind Pou.

Pou was also the only Hispanic legislator in the majority-Hispanic 35th legislative district. Unless something unexpected happens, a district where 52% of residents are Hispanic will now lack Hispanic representation in Trenton.

Wimberly and Sumter were both elected to the Assembly in 2011.

As speaker pro tempore, he was the chamber’s third-in-command. He also recently co-chaired the Assembly’s Select Committee on Ballot Design, which wrote legislation to end the decades-long practice of the county line.